Blizzard is ready to boost their sales with the release of Starcraft II hitting the shelves July 27th, with many midnight sales being available. There’s a ton of information out there already, so we’ll share some of that with you along with some new potential spoilers that have popped up.

Arcturus Mengsk will be returning to the game, but that was a given. Instead of being a rebel (like he was in Starcraft I), he’s the Emperor of the Dominion who is doing everything he can to take down the uprising lead by the main protagonist, Jim Raynor. Raynor wields the Marine armor and is a bit of a drunk. Kerrigan will be back and speculation will be that her humanity will be a vital plot point. Raynor and Kerrigan were apparently in love at one point before Kerrigan was taken by the Zerg.

The game takes place four years after the Zerg’s “defeat,” giving the creatures plenty of time to make themselves harder to kill. Many new characters are being introduced (like Kate Lockwell as a “replacement” for Mike Liberty as UNN reporter) and the plot is thick as soup, twisting Dark Templar and Zerg fates together that may prove explosive.

Now for some spoilers.

Nova, who was supposed to star in the Starcraft: Ghost project that never took off, will be at least making a cameo.

Valerian Mengsk will be around and is not the only character from the books to move over to the video game.

A Protoss Executor will be a female named Selendis! There was only one female Protoss in Starcraft I, but this game will feature more of them.

Artanis, leader of the Protoss, will return.

There’s more mixing bloods in this game with more human/Zerg hybrids and even a few Protoss/Zerg hybrids.

Tassadar will be making an appearance in a whispy Obi-Wan kind of form.